Jeffrey L. Lape has been selected as the next Director of the Chesapeake Bay Program Office, according to Donald S. Welsh, Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic region.

“Jeff has the leadership skills, experience and commitment necessary to build on our progress in restoring and protecting North America’s largest estuary,” said Welsh. “The Chesapeake Bay is one of our great natural treasures, and Jeff’s expertise will serve us and our many partners and stakeholders well as we continue to accelerate efforts to safeguard the Bay and its living resources.”

Welsh said that Lape has a record of “bringing people together and solving problems.”

He also has a strong background in the technical, legal and policy aspects of watershed management, and a wide range of environmental experience in federal, state and local government and the private sector in a more than 30-year career, said Welsh.

For the majority of his 16 years with the U.S. EPA, Lape has served in key positions involving leadership in national water pollution control strategies. He helped to spearhead EPA’s reform efforts with industrial wastewater management, combined sewer overflows, animal feeding operations, watershed-based permitting and several other Clean Water Act programs.

Lape will replace Rebecca Hanmer, who officially retires on March 18 and has held the position since March 2002.

Welsh praised outgoing director Hanmer for her accomplishments as head of the Chesapeake Bay Program Office.

“Rebecca has been a strong advocate for the Chesapeake Bay,” said Welsh. “Her passion for the Bay and her dedication to its improvement has helped the program take vital steps toward recovery.”

The Chesapeake Bay Program is a regional partnership of state and federal agencies, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations formed in 1983 to lead and direct restoration of the Bay.

3/9/2007